1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to remote input devices and electronic apparatuses using the same. In particular, the present invention relates to a technology for performing a remote input operation while a user is viewing representations displayed on a display.
2. Description of the Related Art
Audio/video devices, television receivers, navigation devices, and other electronic devices have input devices for accepting user's instructions. Typical examples of available input devices include keyboards, remote controllers, and touch panels. With such an input device, input operations are performed through, for example, operating keys, moving a cursor with a mouse, or touching a display.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-78381 (Patent Document 1) discloses a technology in which the operation of a remote control device is checked on the screen of a display. The remote control device is equipped with a plate-shaped touch panel. When it is detected that a finger touches the touch panel, a menu screen is displayed on the display. The menu screen has multiple input areas, each corresponding to multiple contact areas on the touch panel. When the user touches a predetermined contact area on the touch panel, a corresponding input area on the menu screen is displayed in a different color from the color of the other areas, so that the user can easily recognize which input area is currently selected. Patent Document 1 also discloses a double-layer plate-shaped touch panel having a structure in which sheets 602 and 604 are stacked on a sheet 600, as shown in FIG. 12. When a contact portion 606 is lightly pressed with a finger F, an electrical connection for the contact portion 606 is established and a conductor strip 608 below are electrically connected, and when the contact portion 606 is depressed with a greater strength, an electrical connection between the conductor strips 610 and 612 are established.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-348371 (Patent Document 2) discloses a remote control device provided with a track pad that allows position information and contact information to be detected by moving a finger while touching the track pad. In this remote control device, the track pad and an input area (an operation panel) that is displayed on a display are associated with each other so as to allow a corresponding input screen area to be selected in accordance with the position information obtained from the track pad. Patent Document 2 further discloses a fixed-position mode and a scroll mode. In the fixed-position mode, the input screen areas are allocated to the area positions on the track pad on a one-to-one basis. For a general keyboard or the like having a large number of input areas, the scroll mode is used to allocate some of the input areas to the area positions on the track pad.
Accepting input operations with an electronic apparatus is performed in various forms depending on the type of apparatus or the operation state. Thus, particularly, when a virtual keyboard having multiple keys is displayed on the display, the input schemes using the known remote input devices have a problem in that it is difficult to provide each remote input device with multiple input-operation areas that correspond to all of the keys on a one-to-one basis. In this case, an arrangement as disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 2 described above may be employed. In Patent Document 2, some of the multiple keys are allocated to the input-operation areas of the input device, and the remaining keys that are not allocated thereto can be selected through shifting the finger's contact position on the track pad to scroll the keys allocated to the input-operation areas. In this scroll operation, based on the finger's contact position, the keys corresponding to the vicinity of the contact position are reallocated to the input-operation areas of the track pad. With this arrangement, however, it is difficult for the user to easily recognize how much the finger's contact position on the track pad should be moved to obtain an appropriate scroll position or which reallocated keys correspond to which of the input-operation areas of the track pad.